Mixed, Not Stirred: Fear and STONE DEAF in Las Vegas

Mixed, Not Stirred is a weekly column in which artists curate special, themed playlists via Spotify or other mediums.

In this week’s Mixed, Not Stirred, sludge rockers Stone Deafcurate a special playlist of desert rock essentials, featuring jams from Kyuss, Monster Magnet and more. Here’s what the band had to say:

“We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the music began to take hold….I remember saying something like “I feel a bit light-headed…maybe you should drive”. Suddenly there was thunderous roar all around us and a voice was screaming “Holy Jesus who are these goddamn animals?” Those animals were Kyuss. My first intro to them was Green Machine and when the bloody pulp of grunge was left to rot on the muddy banks of the Wishkah, I was convinced Rock n’ Roll was dead but Kyuss gave me hope. Bands like Mudhoney and Tad had crawled back to Seattle to lick their corporate wounds but at the same time, bubbling in the underground, Dave Wyndorf’s fog machines and wind tunnel fans were transforming tiny clubs into arenas. Stoner rock had a much different vibe then. There was no engineered lab weed and craft beer consisted of Pete’s Wicked Ale and Heineken. Picking out seeds and rolling joints (the last joint I rolled was when I was 5 but that’s a story for later….) from weed that made the journey from Mexico to So Cal in some bikers crack, rightfully laid out on the gatefold of Volume 4. Jesse Hughes basking like a lizard on the hood of an old primer gray Camaro outside the local Circle K buying Mad Dog 20/20 for the young ladies. Queens of the Stone Age on shamanistic journeys deep in the desert returning with answers to the universe. Individualism born out of necessity. No flock to follow cause no one gave a shit. Sit back and ride along with us through this sun-baked landscape…..no point in mentioning these bats…..you’ll see them soon enough.”